Sacramento, CA —

Environmental groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Port of Stockton’s approval of a project that would produce hydrogen from fossil methane, increasing climate and air pollution. The lawsuit challenges failures in the port’s environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act and asks San Joaquin County Superior Court to cancel the project’s approval.

“This is dirty hydrogen, delivered by dirty trucks, for potentially dirty uses. If the port wants to build this project, it must do a better job explaining how it will clean up all of this pollution,” said Earthjustice attorney Katrina Tomas. “At a time when the climate crisis is devastating our state with wildfires, the port approved a project that will increase greenhouse gas emissions and keep us hooked on fossil fuels. The port says this project is climate friendly, but if you dig below the surface, it’s not.”

The Port of Stockton has admitted that the project, developed by New Mexico-based BayoTech, Inc., would have wide-ranging harms, including emissions of health-harming air pollutants and climate-damaging greenhouse gasses, and damage to the habitat of imperiled plants and animals. The project is slated for south central Stockton, an environmental justice community with many polluting facilities and some of the worst air pollution in the state.

“We know there are cleaner ways to make hydrogen that won’t foul our air or threaten our health and the climate,” said Eric Parfrey, a longtime Stockton resident and Sierra Club activist. “Why is the port choosing the most polluting method? It needs to do better for the people of Stockton. We need clean air and jobs that support a transition away from fossil fuels, not more polluting industries.”

Today’s lawsuit demands that the port complete a full environmental analysis that considers alternatives to dirty hydrogen and analyzes the project’s harms to the surrounding community, as well as whether the project complies with California’s climate goals.

“We started working on this dirty hydrogen project back in June 2023 and commented on the impacts and lack of mitigation that the methane feedstock BayoTech project posed for our community,” said Mary Elizabeth, a multi-generational Stockton resident and conservation chair of the Delta-Sierra Group of the Sierra Club. “The Port of Stockton’s history of approving projects without adequate environmental analyses and mitigation cannot be repeated. Port operations continue to impact our community with existing projects. Our community suffers from the effects of climate change with heat islands and warmer waters that allow harmful algae to grow. Climate change is now, and we cannot continue to allow business as usual.”

“This polluting hydrogen project takes California in the exact opposite direction from its clean energy goals,” said Maggie Coulter, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “A project that increases carbon emissions and boosts dirty hydrogen over clean alternatives is a loser for the climate and communities. The port needs to go back to the drawing board and reconsider its approval of this greenwashed project.”

The lawsuit was filed by Earthjustice, representing Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Background

BayoTech’s proposed hydrogen plant would make hydrogen from fossil methane through a process that emits harmful air pollutants and greenhouse gasses. The company’s proposed mitigation of greenhouse gas pollution relies on the purchase of biomethane “credits,” but the port provides no evidence these credits will actually reduce the emissions driving the climate crisis. The port will also rely on diesel trucks to transport the hydrogen, worsening the pollution that already surrounds the port. Ongoing and cumulative exposure to unhealthy air can result in illness and death from lung and cardiovascular disease and other health problems.

People of color make up more than 80% of Stockton’s population and disproportionately bear the brunt of industrial facilities and their health-harming pollution. Neighborhoods near the Port of Stockton rank among the most burdened by multiple sources of pollution among California communities. Compared to other census tracts in California, the tract where the dirty hydrogen project is located ranks in the 99th percentile for overall pollution burden. As a result, residents around the port have some of the highest asthma and cardiovascular disease incidences in the state.